Microsoft has announced that it is ending support for Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 on January 12, 2016, pushing PC users to switch to Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge browsers. "Internet Explorer is a component of the Windows operating system and the most current version will continue to follow the specific support lifecycle policy for the operating system on which it is installed. Internet Explorer 11 will be supported for the life of Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10,”"said Microsoft in the announcement. "The latest version of Internet Explorer will continue to follow the component policy, which means that it follows the support lifecycle and is supported for as long as the Windows operating system on which it is installed."

Microsoft warned that using older browsers makes PCs vulnerable to viruses, malware and spyware. By shutting down support for previous versions of Internet Explorer, website developers would also no longer have to spend hours ensuring that designs are compatible with older Microsoft browsers.

Microsoft is issuing a patch on January 12th which will have a "nag box" asking Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users that are running old browsers to upgrade.

In terms of desktop browser market share, Internet Explorer has been decreasing as Google Chrome increases. According to Net Applications, Internet Explorer went from 58.21% in January 2014 to 48.57% in December 2015 while Google Chrome surged from 16.35% in January 2014 to 32.33% in December 2015.